Over 28,000 thyroidectomies are performed in the United States annually for suspected malignancy. However, up to 18,000 of these are benign on permanent histology. This phenomenon is due to the fact that fine needle aspirations (FNA) of the thyroid that are suspicious for malignancy ultimately turn out to represent a benign process in 60% of cases. Because of this phenomenon we chose to examine follicular neoplasms of the thyroid for molecular markers that would distinguish a follicular adenoma from a carcinoma.